Getting 2013 summer garden up and running

Due to a late freeze this year, I finally got the garden started about two weeks after Spring Break.  Hopefully the late start won't hurt me to much this year.   So every year I try something new to experiment with in my garden.  This year its several things.  The first thing I am trying is companion planting.  I have been reading up on this in a few books and various websites and found it intriguing so I thought lets give it a go.  Another thing I decided to try this year is mulching over my soaker hoses to save on water loss.   Austin already has a stage 2 water restriction in place.  I know vegetable gardens are exempt from the restriction, but I figure if I can do my part in water conservation then that means it will just add on to the future of available water source.

The third thing I decided to experiment with I got from a friend of mine.  Its a self-watering gutter system using five gallon buckets.  After doing some quick research online, I found that this method was created by a guy named Larry Hall.  He has a few videos out explaining it and many people use this method for rooftop gardens in urban areas.  Since I already had a few plastic gutters laying around in the garage, I figured why not try it.  I found some food grade buckets on craigslist for $2 each, spent about $10 on some treated 2x4s at the home improvement store, and some netcups at a local nursery for about $5 for about 18 cups.  The only real money I spent was on the float valve to adjust the water level in the gutters.   I still have to find a barrel to hold the water in but I have guy who will hook me up.   Just need to call him.

So looking at what I started with this year is this
seedlings:
tomatoes- purchased 6 (variety of kinds), 16 that just popped up in the beds
zucchini- purchased 4, 3 that popped up on their own
cucumbers- purchased 6,
bell peppers- purchased 6
okra- purchased 3
grape- purchased 6 plants


from seed:
bib lettuce
spinach
mixed greens
bush beans
corn
radishes
cabbage
basil (not sure if I threw out some seed or it just magically appeared like last year)


 As of today, we have had several salads with the amount of lettuce and spinach I've grown.  I made some pickled radishes the other day, and have just started pulling off a few cherry tomatoes.

My one failure so far this year has been my "salad table" constructed with some leftover gutters and 2x4s from my garage.  The problem is that I drilled too many holes in the bottom of the gutters so all the water drains out and the shallow depth of the gutters dry out way to quick for anything to sustain growth.  The only way to keep things growing is to water 2x's a day and that's not good for me. 

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!